Hudson Williams speaks onstage during "Making Waves With...Hudson Williams" during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Mathew Tsang/Getty Images for TIFF Logo text Hudson Williams is teasing what it’s been like on set for Heated Rivalry season two.
The 26-year-old actor, speaking during a conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, spoke about what it was like for him and co-star Connor Storrie when they went back to set on the hit queer hockey romance drama. “It was surreal to step into it,” Williams told the crowd.
“We’re going to be kissing each other, brother. I’m going to be doing my fucking Russian accent to you,” he said, mimicking Storrie. Williams said it was hard for them to wrap their heads around going back and were concerned they wouldn’t be able to get right back into it. Williams pointed out that it was the first time he’d ever returned to a character on a big scale.
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Williams said much of their memory around the first season wasn’t just shooting but seeing the episodes, fans reactions and everything that’s happened in the last 10 months. But ultimately the pair decided to be “overconfident” and knew they knew their characters in and out. “We’re going to show up and it’s just going to be Ilya and Shane right back,” he said.
Storrie ended up working on the first day, without Williams, and came back to tell his co-star about the experience. “He was like, ‘It was sort of weird. They were all so good that I was like, am I good? Am I in it? Am I doing the thing? Am I doing an impression of Ilya?'” Williams recalled Storrie saying.
Williams told the crowd he was extremely confident that wouldn’t happen to him. “Then I showed up. I was doing the scene and there was some extras, who were clearly fans, and they’re just so perky. I was like, ‘Oh God. Oh God, am I doing a Shane impression?'” he questioned.
Thankfully, Williams and Storrie were able to find their footing quickly. Williams pointed to the show’s creator Jacob Tierney continuing to the make the set feel just as small and intimate as he did when they were filming season one. It helped the the crew is still the same as the previous season.
Williams also teased a bit of season two, which will mainly be based on Rachel Reid‘s Heated Rivalry follow-up novel, The Long Game. “It’s a sad book,” he said. “If season one/book one is the yearning season, book two is external adversity and [relationship] communication problems that feel very real and human.”
The actor added, “To be able to play those as Shane, [it’s] going to be frustrating and annoying to leave set [when] things are left unsaid, but hopefully it’ll make for really good TV.”
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